Valuable data isn’t only held by large businesses. Personal information of employees, card numbers, and even health records are all protected by many a small business. Cyber criminals are more than aware of this and have been challenging SMEs with plenty of simple, targeted attacks. This year the world will be working from home just as much as in 2020. This means your business and your employees will still very much be a target. Read on for a little more detail as to why.
SME cyber security is typically much easier to hack
Their IT department is usually small and manned by a generalist. What’s more, small businesses can rarely justify the added expense of hiring a dedicated cyber security expert. Small businesses will also have simpler networks and systems than larger businesses which end up being easier to hack. SME cyber security is further undermined by the fact that small businesses think it won’t happen to them. This makes them avoid training their staff and investing in quality cyber security technology.
Personal and SME accounts are also more accessible
Smaller businesses typically have few safeguards over the personal information that can be used to access the company bank account. Many SME accounts are often personal accounts. This means a hacker can often fake an identity and directly transfer funds from an SME’s account with ease. Large enterprise accounts on the other hand will have a greater set of security checks. If a hacker wants to steal funds directly, SMEs will be the one to hack.
SMEs are more inclined to pay a ransom
Cyber insurance is typically skipped over by SMEs. This means they have no cyber insurance specialists to turn to when their security is compromised. They’re typically left feeling like the only remedy to the crippling downtime they’re now experiencing is to pay a ransom and move on.
Larger organisations can be easily accessed by SMEs
Many SMEs have access to the sensitive data and IT systems of much larger organisations. Why would an attacker wrestle with enterprise-level security when they can get past SME cyber security with ease? Finding out which smaller businesses serve the larger ones is easy, with many partnerships being openly demonstrated by publicly available data. Attacking larger organisations via smaller ones isn’t just a problem for SMEs. SolarWinds, a large software company was hacked to offer access to government agencies.
SME cyber security is evidently no afterthought. Especially when we’re looking to make our remote work as safe and effective as possible. Cyber security training is a great way to keep cyber-attacks at bay, so why not book a FREE cyber security awareness training demo today.